Metropolitan Joseph | |
---|---|
Митрополит Иосиф | |
Title | Metropolitan Bishop |
Personal | |
Born | Yosyf Yosyfovich Semashko 25 December 1798 |
Died | 23 November 1868 | (aged 69)
Known for | Synod of Polotsk |
Organization | |
Church | Russian Orthodox Church, Ruthenian Uniate Church |
Joseph Semashko (Ukrainian: Йосиф Семашко; Polish: Józef Siemaszko; Russian: Иосиф Семашко; 25 December 1798 – 23 November 1868) was an Eastern Catholic priest and bishop who played a central role in the highly controversial conversion of the Ruthenian Uniate Church of the western provinces of the Russian Empire to Russian Orthodoxy in 1837–1839.[1] Subsequently, he became an archbishop in the Russian Orthodox hierarchy, elevated to the Metropolitan bishop of Vilnius and Lithuania in 1852.